Transcript CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRANSPORT SECTOR IN BULGARIA …

FEATURES AND PROBLEMS
OF TRANSPORT SECTOR
IN BULGARIA
Final conference of project RITS
Ljubljana
12th June 2012
Svetla Ruseva
Union of the Employers Organizations in Road Transport (SOAT)
Project “RITS - Restructuring and Industrial Relations in the Transport Sector” is financially supported by European Commission.
The sole responsibility for the content lies with the author. European Commission is not responsible for any use of the content.
Transport in figures
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Transport, storage and communications generate around 13%
of the gross value added in the country.
At the end of 2010 in the transport, storage and
communications sector operated 19 084 companies,
predominantly small.
The transport sector alone currently employs 73 466 persons.
In 2011 the Bulgarian transport system supported on a daily
basis an average of 2.2 million passenger trips and the
transport of 278 thousand tones of freight.
Main features of
Bulgarian transport sector
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The transport sector in Bulgaria is highly competitive.
There is an increase in the total number of companies
operating in the transport, compared to the pre-crisis 2008,
with the largest growth being achieved by road freight
companies.
The increase is due to the emerging micro companies,
employing up to 9 persons, while the number of medium and
large companies was reduced during the years of economic
crisis.
The number of employees in the transport industry was
reduced during the economic downturn by 13.9%.
Sales in the transport sector during the period 2008-2010
shrank by 21.4%,
- land transport falling by 20.4%
- water transport by 40.7%
- airline transport by 1.8%
Bulgarian transport
market
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The transport services market in the
country is to a great extent deregulated
The national legislation is harmonized with
the EU legislation
Bulgaria has assured free access to all
transport operators to various modes of
transport infrastructures, with the
exception of the railway passenger
transport
Sustainable development of
Bulgarian transport –
main objective of the sector
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Sustainable development is about striking the
right balance between economic development,
social equity and environmental protection.
For the road transport industry, meeting this
objective translates into the challenge of satisfying
market demands at the lowest economic, social
and environmental cost possible
Bulgaria accepted the IRU 3 "i" Strategy, based on
Innovation, Incentives and Infrastructure
The 3 “i” Strategy
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Innovation - to develop ever more effective "atsource" technical measures and operating practices
to reduce environmental impact.
Incentives - to encourage faster introduction by
transport operators of best available technology and
practices
Infrastructure - without free-flowing traffic, the
above measures are useless. Adequate investment
in new infrastructure to remove bottlenecks and
missing links, plus fullest use of existing
infrastructure are essential.
TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
- SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS
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Bulgaria has a high density road infrastructure with over 19 000 km. of roads,
but only 480 km. of them highway roads.
Under construction currently are 296 km. of highways and 261 km. of high
speed roads.
A second railway and road bridge over the Danube River is under construction
too.
Weaknesses of the existing road infrastructure
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It is not well developed especially in the suburban areas of large agglomerations.
The quality of the road network is not satisfactory, mainly because of the poor state
of repair and the insufficiently developed network of highways and roads with more
than two lanes.
Insufficient infrastructure of bypass roads, as a result of which motor vehicles traffic
is passing through a large number of towns and cities.
Another problem stems out of the necessity, in line with the international
commitments assumed by the state, to increase the load-carrying capacity of
the pavements to 11.5 tones/axle along the main international transport
destinations by 2014.
Consequences
of the global downturn
of economical activities in Bulgaria
Road freight transport in
Bulgaria
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Over 50% of the road freight transport in Bulgaria is carried
out on own account
The road freight transport in Bulgaria is used for transportation
of goods to near and medium distances
The main international markets are the EU countries with a
share of 71%, Turkey – 18%, followed by CEE countries – 8%
and other countries – 3%.
A shift from transporting goods by railway and waterborne
transport to road transport was observed in the last few years.
Bulgarian freight carrying
companies with EU license
9772
10000
9000
7900
8000
7000
5863 5571
6000
5000
3673
6366
number of
companies
4475
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Freight carrying companies by the
number of the trucks owned
/October 2011/
from 10 to 19
13,8%
6 to 9
15,9%
from 20 to 49 over 50
1,3%
5,5%
up to 5 vehicles
63,5%
Road passenger transport
in Bulgaria
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Road passenger transport in Bulgaria is mostly used to cover short
distances.
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Road passenger transport entered into the economic crisis in the first
quarter of 2009.
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A tendency has emerged during the last several years towards a decline
in the travels by public transport between towns as well as a decline in
the demand for interurban transport of passengers by public transport.
The quality of services provided by the bus operators in the sector of
suburban transport services is inadequate in terms of availability,
frequency and reliability.
Currently 53.2% of all the road passenger companies operate only on
the domestic market.
Passengers carrying companies with EU license
946
1000
797
900
800
686
700
520
600
500
number of
companies
399
400
300
200
100
0
2007
2008
2010
2011
2012
Influence of the economic downturn
over the companies in passengers
transport
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Decrease in the number of the trips, and the number of
passengers – 60%
Shift in the passengers preferences towards the cheaper
railway transport
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Increase of the competition of the low cost air companies
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Closure of international buss lines
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Decrease of the frequency of the existing international lines
Problems of the
transport sector
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The introduction of the EU road transport rules, for instance
limits on driving time as well as the increased wages, lead to
a sharp increase in labor costs.
The drop in freight demand and the drop in transport
services` prices, especially on the domestic market, along
with the increased competition and the higher labor costs
reduced the return on revenue. This lead many of the
companies to a bankruptcy, but even much more, mostly
small companies, emerged.
The low demand for freight transport services. For example in
January 2012 63% of the total number of Bulgarian trucks
did not meet demand for transport services.
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Significant problem is the high level of empty mileage runs,
which worsens the utilization rate of mileage.
A major concern is the outflow of drivers to other EU states,
as well as the low level of foreign language knowledge of the
drivers.
The economic downturn and the reduction of the return on
revenue stopped the investments in new vehicles and
innovations
Delayed payments of the transport services
The sustainable development of transport includes traffic
safety, which is a major problem in Bulgaria
Traffic safety
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The number of traffic accident deaths from 2000 till 2010
were 9852 people and 90690 were wounded
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During 2011 due to the increasing number of road accidents
around 775 people were killed and 8080 were wounded
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traffic safety is a major source of concern, which implies the
need to initiate measures for reduction of the human
casualties and the economic and material damages
Our government adopted National traffic safety strategy,
aiming to reduce the traffic accident deaths and the number
of the wounded by 50% till 2020, compared to 2010
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Fuel prices in
EU member countries
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Main issues for future
development
Achieving the goals of the White paper
- Increase of quality of transport services
- Traffic safety development needs a systematical
approach /infrastructure modernization, obligatory
professional competence training of drivers and
managers, strengthening of the state control
activities /
- to lower, as much as possible, its environmental
footprint notably through increased fuel-efficiency
and noise reduction.
Thank you for your attention!
Project “RITS - Restructuring and Industrial Relations in the Transport Sector” is financially supported by European Commission.
The sole responsibility for the content lies with the author. European Commission is not responsible for any use of the content.